


Soft

by ghostlywail



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: M/M, Movie Night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:28:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23999008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostlywail/pseuds/ghostlywail
Summary: Juno tries to stay awake during an arguably abysmal choice of movie, and struggles.--It's short. It's cute.
Relationships: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel
Comments: 7
Kudos: 90





	Soft

The communal space of the Carte Blanche was cast in a blanket of darkness, save for the light emanating from the communication center broadcasting Juno and Rita's most current obsession and gently illuminating the room in soft hues of blues and whites. _God, this movie is so boring_ , Juno thought to himself. _What does Rita even see in this? It’s not even realistic! And that guy has been full of it since the beginning…_ He’d already fallen asleep at least once, awoken by Rita pelting snacks at him and sending him an all too familiar ‘stay awake or we’ll restart the movie’-style Rita glare. Not that her threats were helping, he could feel the alluring pull of sleep tugging at his eyelids and promising him much more entertaining dreams than this, or at least quiet nothingness till it was over. He’d much prefer something with action, or comedy, something that wasn’t filled with normal people and normal problems.

Looking away from the screen for what felt like the millionth time that night, Juno turned to look up, instead settling his gaze on Nureyev from where he was resting against his thigh. Like a _sap_ , he could feel his heartstrings tug suddenly as he took in the sight of the infamous thief that had made off with his heart, now cast in residual pastels from the screen he was focused so intently on. Probably preparing for the imminent onslaught of questions to come. Juno couldn’t help marveling at how the light framed Nureyev’s face so perfectly despite the piss-poor angle he was at. How had he managed to snag the prettiest thief in all of the cosmos as his personal napping surface? He marveled at his thief for longer than he’d meant, eye tracing along every line of him that he’d somehow missed with this new angle.

His reverent adoration of the thief-turned-pillow was interrupted as a very familiar set of fingers pushed his hair out of his face before setting out to gently massage his scalp, their owner seemingly noticing Juno’s gaze. He let out a soft hum, his eye slipping shut once more at the sensation. Juno could feel more than he heard Nureyev let out a soft chuckle as he tilted his head towards the sensation, his gaze still politely focused on the movie playing ahead that Juno had mostly slept through.

After nearly falling asleep in his thief’s lap for a second time, Juno blinked his eye and let out a not-so-subtle yawn that went mostly unnoticed, save for a warning glance from Rita across the room. He rolled his eye and made a genuine effort to stay up for her, fighting a losing battle against Nureyev’s attempts to seemingly summon the wrath of a very disappointed Rita onto him. He glanced away from the screen once again to go back to his new favorite kind of stargazing, not quite as familiar to him as the constellations on Mars were, but was quickly catching up.

He caught himself about to nod off once more and shifted around some, turning to face Nureyev’s stomach a bit more than the screen as he lifted his arm into the air to stretch, another yawn threatening to give away his inability to pay attention. Technically he wasn’t asleep like this, despite now facing the soft fabric of his own t-shirt draped around Nureyev's much thinner form, so Rita couldn’t be mad. It was truly an innocent motion at first, but as he went to lower his arm he found that he simply couldn’t resist the sudden urge to touch. He moved his hand till calloused fingertips gently brushed over Nureyev’s cheek, working to gently trace the outline of him in soft light, comfortable and safe with him in this moment. The touch finally stole Nureyev’s attention away from the film, those two dark eyes looking back at him now with a softness to rival the very couch they occupied. With the excess light of the movie flickering against those two pools of mystery magnified by his glasses, it really did seem like Nureyev was his galaxy in that moment, excess fractals of light reflecting back at him and leaving him even more awestruck than before.

Without really thinking, Juno shifted his hand to lace through Nureyev’s hair and tug him slowly down with little resistance till he was within an easy kissing distance to do just that, both hands now coming up to cup his cheeks. Nureyev had let out a little confused sound at first, not expecting Juno to kiss him in the middle of family movie night. Juno focused mostly on giving the overwhelming amount of feelings beating against his chest a physical meaning in this one action, the constant voice in the back of his head whispering _I love you, you know that? I love you, I love you, I--_ as if Nureyev could suddenly read his thoughts. He pulled back once satisfied that his message had gone through enough for now, not really looking to start a genuine make-out session under the gaze of their whole crime family and get another “close quarters” and “thin metal walls”-adjacent talk.

He was pleased to see a very flustered thief hovering over him even as his hands slipped away, seeming to lean forward to close the distance once again before Nureyev remembered himself. His free hand darted from the arm rest to clap over his mouth quicker than the speed he'd shot back up before Jet had the chance to notice and awkwardly clear his throat or, worse, say something. Just to make sure Nureyev knew he was thoroughly loved in this moment, Juno gently plucked the hand that had been carding through his dark locks to press a soft kiss to the palm before settling back down to further marvel at his favorite partner-in-crime (don’t tell Rita). Upon releasing his hand and looking back up at his galaxy of a partner, Juno couldn’t hide the snicker that escaped him at the bright flush that had taken over Nureyev’s features, and shifted back around to be able to at least pretend-watch the movie while marveling at his reaction.

Juno watched as Nureyev’s flustered features morphed from shock and awe, to annoyance at Juno in the form of a scowl as the blush reached his ears, to mild paranoia as he glanced around to make sure no one had noticed the moment they’d just shared. Once certain they had avoided Rita’s primary objective of “Constantly Ensuring Everyone Was Enjoying The Movie” as well as Vespa’s judging gaze, he glanced up at the screen again before setting a confused look at Juno. The momentary annoyance was gone, replaced now with something much more fond, and questions Juno didn’t have the privacy to answer just yet.

Nureyev’s hand eventually slipped away from his face once he’d had some time to compose himself, the color now gone from the tips of his ears much to Juno’s disappointment. There was still just a bit of color high up on his cheeks, though it was well-hidden in the low light. The hand that had been basically petting him returned, and Juno was pleased to find Nureyev now paying him attention in tandem with the movie, occasionally giving his hair a light tug as he was about to nod off again, his free hand now entwined with Juno’s and tracing little circles on his skin with his thumb, glancing down at him every now and then. He’d give Nureyev the sweetest of smiles whenever he glanced back down, and was delighted each time it was returned and some of that color returned.

Softness hadn’t come easy to him, but the way Nureyev reacted like he’d never expected to be on the receiving end of something so gentle, so loving, how could Juno resist? He’d round off every sharp edge he had left just to see that smile accompanied by those eyes, on this face, saved just for him. He’d give anything to have this thieving man in his arms, and while that had once scared him, he had learned to love the fear that loving someone that much came with, too.

The movie eventually came to an end, though Juno couldn’t tell one way or another if it was a good ending. The annoying guy had been separated by the main cast at some point, so it was probably better than it had started, but he’d paid little attention to most of it. As the lights flickered back on, Juno was pleased to see the flush on Nureyev’s cheeks hadn’t been fully willed away, and stifled a fit of giggles despite the flush on his own. Nureyev’s scowl at him was worth it, though the less gentle tug on his hair made the giggle fit stop abruptly with a gasp and a soft ‘owowow’.

“What did you think of the movie, Mistah Steel?! I know you don’t normally like stuff that does the slice-of-life kinda thing, but this one was just so good I wanted to see if you’d change your mind!!” Rita interrupted the moment suddenly -- well, perhaps not suddenly. It seemed she and Jet had been asking everyone for input on the film to gauge for the next movie night, though he’d failed to notice, too stuck in Nureyev’s gravitational field to notice anything but things pertaining to him. She went on for a moment, highlighting the bits she thought he’d like and the parts she already knew she liked, and the things Jet had liked about it, and the things they’d agreed sucked, and... He glanced from Rita to Nureyev and back, before letting a content smile take over.

“It was nice. We should do this again.” He responded, definitely not talking about the movie as he gave Peter’s hand a little squeeze. She nodded excitedly and looked to Nureyev.

“What about you, Mistah Ransom??” Juno’s heart threatened to tumble from his chest when he felt the squeeze returned.

“I-- Agreed. It was very. Lovely. I’d love to do this sort of thing again.”

**Author's Note:**

> Taking requests if you've got 'em!


End file.
